“Yes Tim, thanks. I think, as I tried to indicate to David, there are other factors within manufacturing costs which go the other way - absorption will be one of them, slightly going against, obviously, because our intention would be effectively to reduce volume next year, which will impact our rate of absorption and potentially inventory as well.”

In context

“arly related to some large contracts that we’ve announced previously; and then in CI, it was broadly flat for the quarter year-over-year. Operator: We’ll go next to Tim Thein at Raymond James. Tim Thein: Thank you, good morning. Maybe Andrew, just back to the--you had mentioned within the commentary around CI, the issue of inventory absorption or the headwind from it. As you think about Cat more broadly, should we in an environment where the top line is slightly lower, should we think about that as a headwind more broadly for Cat as a whole in ’25, just given where inventory levels are for the company? Is that something we should be factoring in, in terms of that discussion around material cost, or is it less of a headwind as you think about the margin outlook? Thank you. Andrew Bonfield: Yes Tim, thanks. I think, as I tried to indicate to David, there are other factors within manufacturing costs which go the other way - absorption will be one of them, slightly going against, obviously, because our intention would be effectively to reduce volume next year, which will impact our rate of absorption and potentially inventory as well. Inventory is a little bit of a more difficult subject. Just to remind you, we are a very large complex company, we have hundreds of products that we hold inventory for, and not all those products have exactly the same lead time. Some of the longer lead time projects are where we are strongest at the moment, things like solar and also large engines, and so some of those may actually continue to build inventory, where we may see some inventory trimming with CI, for example, with slightly lower volumes and also RI as we go through the year. It’s going to be a little bit of a mixed bag, but there may be some impact on absorption and that was built into the fact that obviously we’re not going to see favorability from material costs coming through, manufacturing cost added to the depreciation I”